Victor Zelman

Victor Zelman (1877–1960) was an Australian painter and etcher. He was born in Melbourne and was the son of Alberto Zelman (senior) and the brother of Alberto Zelman, the founder of the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra.

Zellman was born into a musical family, both his father and his elder brother were noted musicians. He grew up in Carlton and attended King's College in Fitzroy. Victor mastered the viola and violin and performed in chamber orchestras as a young man. He trained at the National Gallery of Victoria Art School in Melbourne. After finishing his training, Zelman exhibited with other groups of traditional artists in the general exhibitions organised by the various artists' societies in Melbourne including The Victorian Artists’ Society, The Melbourne Artists’ Society, The Fine Art Society, The Painters and Etchers’ Society, and The New Gallery and submitted work in various municipal art competitions and exhibitions.

In 1907 Zellman married Clara Borsa. He was 46 when he held his first solo exhibition of paintings in Melbourne. In August 1923 at a small gallery run by Margaret McLean in the Tunnocks building at 125 Collins Street. It was reviewed in both the Age and Argus newspapers. The unnamed Age reviewer described it as a "loveable little show amidst picturesque surroundings" and implied that Victor was known already and setting out in a new direction with his landscape paintings. Victor was firmly in the camp of the Traditionalists who dominated the Melbourne art scene until the end of the 1930s. This style continued to be taught at the National Gallery Art School in Melbourne firmly entrenched there by the views of the Gallery director James S. McDonald.

Plein aire and impressionist landscapes were the popular choice of the Melbourne art public at this time. It was at the very end of the era started by the Melbourne Heidleberg School in the 1880s and soon to be riven by huge challenges to its dominance by young artists such as George Bell in Melbourne and the founding of the Melbourne Contemporary Group in 1932. European Modernism was almost unknown in Melbourne at this time and throughout his career, Victor showed little interest in its many iterations.

The Age review encouraged him and the public by adding "Mr Zelman has paid us a charming complement -he exhibits only his best work … all carefully studied and entirely satisfactory panels." His reviewer hoped that "If promises are fulfilled he will carve himself a niche among Australian landscape painters." The review concluded, "We will watch with deep interest Mr. Zelman’s future work."

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